External hard disk drives are used as a storage extension for a digital set-top-box. The set-top-box establishes exclusive access to the hard disk drive for storing digital media content.
The set-top-box and the external hard disk drive are “trusted” to each other such that access to the external hard disk drive is limited to the trusted set-top-box for the purpose of securing content.
However, the user may want to connect the external hard disk drive to yet another set-top-box and access the already stored digital content. Currently, a different set-top box cannot access an external hard disk drive and its digital media content stored by an original set-top-box. This restriction is currently placed on set-top-boxes and hard disk drives to secure the digital media content stored in a user's external hard disk drive and prevent unauthorized access to the digital media content by other set-top-boxes. With such an arrangement, a set-top-box can record and playback the digital media content on an external hard disk drive, but usage of the external hard disk drive is restricted to that particular or single set-top-box.
However, in a set-top-box home network environment, the user may want to access the digital media content stored in the external hard disk drive from another set-top-box. The user may want to enjoy the portability of the external hard disk drive by physically moving it between different set-top-boxes available in his home. With a portable hard disk drive, it is necessary to enable access to the hard disk drive by authorized set-top-boxes while still maintaining protection against access by unauthorized set-top-boxes.
Conventional secure digital content distribution systems and secure hard drives, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,647,507, help to secure the hard drive and its digital content by means of an encryption method in order to secure against content piracy. However, such systems do not provide a way to expand the accessibility of the hard drive among different player devices, but rather merely limits the access.